MelissaH

I don't think you actually need to add transglutaminase, if you're going to do the pounding and massaging and the like. I believe that the pounding and massaging (as well as possibly the injecting) disrupts some of the cells and releases their contents, which includes enzymes that act similarly to (if are not) transglutaminase. In the clip they talk about "proteins" but remember that all enzymes are proteins! I think I might consider trying physical manipulation on a small scale and see what happens, whether you actually need to add enzymes.

That's the one. I believe I said I'd never eat the stuff again after watching that clip. And I don't think I have. (An aside: what kind of plastic are they using that smoke can penetrate into the meat?)

I hope you're not trying to do what my university dining hall often did and serve a "monotone meal," since so much of what you got is white! (I don't recall ever getting a white meal, but the yellow meal was bad and the brown meal was worse.)

When I saw the picture, I thought they looked like an ice cream sandwich relative. Have you tried using the cookies for that purpose?

Everything looks wonderful. Is Singapore a country where you feel safe eating everything from a health/sanitation standpoint?

I remember catching a "How It's Made" show or something of its ilk, showing how deli chicken was made, when I still had cable TV. They didn't add transglutaminase. Instead, they took chicken breasts and scraped or cut the surface (the details now elude me) and then bound them together somehow. Apparently the scraping or cutting spurs some kind of enzyme action, maybe a naturally-present transglutaminase or similar?, which causes the individual breasts to adhere to each other and become a single unit. Again, this was long enough ago that I can't remember the details, but I wonder if this would give you an opportunity to introduce flavor to the inside of the roll, or if adding spices or even just salt would kill the adhesion.

Kerry, is this the same recipe you've posted previously as Blondies? Did they decide they'd had enough of being blond and needed a rebranding?

Chris, do you think the epazote is an absolute must for the dishes you've made with it? I've never seen it in the markets here. Obviously, things will taste different without epazote, but in your opinion would it make the dishes not worth the trouble?

No food recommendations, but don't miss the hardware store, which has more than just hardware. I've easily spent hours browsing.

As far as keeping track of ingredients, have you and Kerry considered keeping a cloud-based inventory of what you bring? We have one for our freezer, as a Google (spread)Sheet. Columns for general description (type of meat, or if it's a soup or dough or whatever), more specific description (what cut of meat, kind of soup, variety of cookie dough, etc.), approximate weight (although this gets loosely applied, as the "weight" listed for Cookie/Peanut Butter is "puck"), how many, location, and date (as YYYY/MM so it's easy to sort). The advantage of having it in the cloud is that it's easily accessible from wherever we are, and Google Sheets are easily shared between users. While it's a painful day's work to make the inventory in the first place, it's not at all painful to do the upkeep. We even go so far as when we use something up that we want to make a point of replacing, we highlight the row with bold text so it's easy to spot as you look through. You could even append a second worksheet for the alcohol.

Well, I'm just back from spending three months in Belgium. One of my favorite desserts while I was there was a float made of chocolate ice cream and raspberry lambic beer. (This is actually a great use for one of the sweeter lambics, which includes many of the varieties imported to the United States.) The only reason I didn't have one more often was because my refrigerator was a half-height dorm-size fridge with minimal freezer capabilities both in size and temperature!

I got my copy of the book as soon as we returned to the United States after three months abroad. Since then, I've spent a week reading through and very nearly literally drooling over it. And then, I finally get back to eG and find this thread. Wow! I'm wondering if I should maybe start haunting my local thrift store for a rice cooker smaller than the 10-cup model I currently have, which I think is a bit large for the rice cooker recipes here. While I know I could easily do them on the stove, there are times when I don't necessarily want to spend the 20 minutes of cooking time in the kitchen watching the flame, which I wouldn't be compelled to do with an electric cooker.

ElsieD, I've been out of the country with limited internet access for the last three months, or I would have answered you sooner. The Syracuse TJ's store is the closest one to me, "only" about an hour away. We also sometimes shop at the Rochester store, which is about an hour and a half of driving. Before these two stores opened, we would stock up on the non-perishables whenever we drove to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, the NYC area, Hartford, Washington DC, or anywhere else that had a store. And we'd search out locations when we flew to other places that had them (Phoenix, Tucson) to get airplane food and other small things that would fit into the cracks of our suitcases. I'm grateful that we now have a store much closer. Anyway, in your initial post after your visit, you wondered about the size of the store. I'd say the Syr location is about average-size for a TJ's. What is not average is the parking lot, which is absolutely miserable. When they first opened, it was almost impossible to find a place to park in that shopping center. There were a couple of times when I drove through the lot a couple of times but couldn't find a space, and then left without actually stopping. (This is one reason why I've come to prefer the Roc location, which is in a much larger shopping center with an enormous lot.) It's gotten better since then, as the novelty has worn off. We have a focused list of things we like to get at a TJ's. Tops on our list are the nuts (especially the 50% less salt cashews, which my husband adores) and many of the cookies, especially the Triple Ginger Cookies (known in our house as Leo Cookies, because our 17 year old cat goes bonkers for these and no other cookies). Here in NY, we can't get much in the way of booze at a grocery store, and none of the beers available at our TJ's is anything to write home about; we do better going to a more local specialty store in our town. We always check the produce, to see what's available and nice. During hockey season, we like to get the little packs of dried fruit and nut mixes, which we donate to our university's women's hockey team as bus food. In the freezer section, the breaded eggplant slices are a good building block for easy meals. We also like the chile rellenos, although they aren't always available. And during the holiday baking season, we stock up on the all-butter puff pastry. They also do a Harvest Hodgepodge frozen veg, which again is a useful building block for meal construction. And I almost always have a package of the frozen sliced leeks on hand, because fresh leeks are ridiculously expensive if they're even available in my town and I like to use leeks when I make soup. For a friend, I typically pick up "the usual": a box of the strawberry bars that are found near the cereal (her son's favorite treat) and a box of the brown rice cereal treats that are sort of like rice krispie treats, found in with the cookies over the freezer section (gluten-free and her daughter's treat). If you're going to be shopping at the Syracuse store, though, I suggest you also plan an extra hour to visit the big Wegmans supermarket in Syracuse, which is not at all far from the TJ's. If you have a smartphone, download the Wegmans app, which includes prices of all the items, and you can comparison-shop on the fly for the items that are available both places.

Pressure cooker. My husband did some in ours the other day, then seared the pieces in cast iron. I wasn't in the kitchen so I don't have the details, but there was none left over. (Is there EVER left over pork belly?)

I've always just taken the bits that crumble off and pressed them back onto their cookie before baking. they maybe aren't quite as perfect looking, but they taste fine. If the dough is too cold, I get more crumbling. I should also note that this is one recipe I have ALWAYS made on a scale. I first learned about it in Paris Sweets, when they were still Korova Cookies and not yet World Peace Cookies. If you want to see the original mass measurements, they're here: http://doriegreenspan.com/2009/02/world-peace-cookies-metric-measures-and-variations.html

Ooh, you could do a surprise mix of sour and sweet candies, all panned together! Wouldn't that be fun?? (Or maybe not. )

Smithy, that would be wonderful, except that we haven't had a landline phone since we moved into this house in 2003. And I'm not willing to leave a computer on when I'm away on an extended trip. We'd need something with WiFi for the idea to be practical.

The penny on the ice trick, as well as the ice cube in a ziplock bag trick, are fine and good if you're home to look in the freezer. But what I'm mainly concerned about is what happens if the freezer fails (separate from the power going out) and only the cat is home. The cat cannot check on a freezer. Bluetooth is also not so useful in this situation, even if we're only across town. (Never mind the possibility that the freezer goes just after we leave for a long weekend out!) It's one thing to learn that there *was* a problem with the freezer and everything in it is kaput. It's another thing entirely to catch the problem early, and be able to save everything in it with prompt action.

Bumping this topic back up to ask an updated question: does anyone know of a freezer alarm/thermometer with some form of connectivity? If your house thermostat and garage door opener can talk to you through a smartphone app, why not a freezer monitor? I'm thinking of a situation a friend experienced where, unbeknownst to her, the deep freeze was plugged into a switched outlet. The switch was inadvertently turned off, and it was a few days before she returned to the basement and discovered the problem. I'm also envisioning a situation where something happens and a freezer dies when we're not home to hear an alarm sounding, but we would get an alert from an app (or could log in and check every day, if we were worried). Does such a gizmo exist, for a reasonable price?

At what temperature does durian freeze? Does that adversely affect its eating properties? I'd think it would help cut down on volatile compounds.

A friend makes a red velvet cake with beet puree for the coloring. It looked very red.

I <3 my cheapo electric kettle that comes up to a boil and shuts itself off. Works beautifully for cups of tea, french presses of coffee, and (because ours has a wide opening) doing hard-cooked eggs: start the timer when the kettle pops off.

As far as school lunches, if you're going to include things that need to be kept cold, remember that most schools don't have refrigerators for the kids to use. Unless you plan to make a major investment in ice packs that don't need to be returned, you might consider including a frozen juice box or other beverage nestled next to the most perishable items. Or you could even freeze water in a ziplock baggie (or use a Food Saver without the vacuum so you have expansion space, and then double- or triple-bag it to be extra sure it won't leak) to make a small ice pack. Would you be permitted to use your own home kitchen to make food for sale, or would you need to rent commercial kitchen space?

I liked Joanne Chang's recipe, published in her cookbook Flour and available on line here: http://macybakes.blogspot.com/2011/09/mmmmpeanut-butter.html She uses Teddie brand peanut butter, but if that isn't available where you are, look for something that's not too sweet. I prefer something that's homogenized, because the all-natural stuff always seems to make the cookies too oily.

Whatever is in a club sandwich, I've always seen it as a "club sandwich." I don't think I've ever run into a "club house sandwich." Is it possible that the two are not synonymous?